Indonesia urged to end virginity tests on female military recruits

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on Indonesia to stop virginity tests for women who want to join the military, calling the practice “cruel, inhuman and degrading.”

The rights group said interviews with female members of the military showed that the examination, normally conducted through a "two-finger test" to ensure the hymen is intact, was required of women joining the armed forces or planning to marry military officers.

The armed forces defended checking female applicants' virginity, saying that people of low morals could "damage the military," but denied that those planning to marry officers were also subject to the checks.

HRW slammed Indonesia’s national police last year for forcing female applicants to undergo the examinations.

In a statement, HRW said the military "should immediately end the use of so-called virginity tests, which violate the prohibition of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international human rights law."

The group described the practice as gender-based violence and said it was "scientifically baseless" as a method of proving that a woman was a virgin.

HRW interviewed 11 recruits and officers' fiancées who had undergone the tests at military hospitals in several cities on the main island of Java.

They also spoke to people involved in conducting the examinations.

Those tested described the practice as painful, embarrassing and traumatic.

One applicant tested in 2013, and cited anonymously in HRW's report, said she was "shocked" that the doctor performing the test was a man.

"It's against the rights of every woman," she said.

The test has been standard for decades and one retired air force officer, also cited anonymously, recalled having undergone it in 1984.

Military spokesman Fuad Basya defended the tests, saying they stop immoral women from entering the armed forces.

If a person has low morals, "then she cannot join the military. Because if she joins the military it will damage the military, which must handle a huge duty.

"They are responsible for the country's sovereignty, the unity of the territory, the safety of the nation."

The HRW report was timed to coincide with a meeting next week on the Indonesian island of Bali organized by the International Committee of Military Medicine, a body that fosters cooperation between medical services of armed forces worldwide.

Wire services